Transmeta's hardware support for DES, DES-X and Triple-DES is designed to accelerate security applications such as file and disk data encryption and the Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) algorithm commonly used in VPNs. The company reckons its processor architecture will make an extension of this to support the recently approved Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) straightforward.

Intel and AMD plan to introduce security functions directly into their microprocessors, but Transmeta argues its ahead in building these technologies into chips thanks to its combined software and hardware approach to microprocessor design.

Transmeta plans to make its security-enhanced TM5800 microprocessors availabile to OEMS in the second half of this year. ®